USDA Budget Cuts and Conservation

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was updated Friday, June 6, following the House of Representatives subcommittee funding markup of USDA's proposed budget.

OMAHA (DTN) -- Farmers would have a harder time getting Conservation Technical Assistance under USDA's 2026 budget proposal, which would slash free, voluntary expert guidance by USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) staff.

The cut to Conservation Technical Assistance is just one of nearly $7 billion in budget cuts USDA proposed, but cutting technical assistance would create a ripple effect across USDA's broader conservation programs.

The Trump administration has already seen more than 2,400 NRCS staff take a voluntary buyout while roughly 1,700 other probationary employees at the agency had their jobs restored after their firings were blocked by the courts.

Under the budget, NRCS staffing would fall from 11,715 to 8,000 employees, nearly a one-third reduction in staff.

BREAKING DOWN TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

Conservation Technical Assistance (CTA) is considered the backbone of USDA's conservation programs. NRCS staff help farmers with voluntary plans to implement various conservation practices on their land. NRCS staff advise farmers on how to install a range of practices such as integrating cover crops, managing nutrient runoff, restoring wetlands or improving habitats.

Technical assistance also serves as an entry point for farmers and ranchers into the suite of USDA conservation programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) or the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP).

CUTS CURBED BY HOUSE PLAN

Under USDA's proposed budget, discretionary funding on CTA would fall from $776.5 million in FY 2025 to zero in FY 2026, which would also eliminate the need for 2,546 full-time equivalent staff.

The House Appropriations Subcommittee for Agriculture this week wasn't willing to go that far. The appropriations budget for USDA provides $850 million for conservation operations, a $45 million cut from FY 2025. Still, USDA leaders would make the call on how much of those funds would go to technical assistance.

Overall, the House subcommittee would provide USDA $21.9 billion for its discretionary budget departmentwide, which is $807 million below FY 2025 levels.

Spelling out the cuts to technical assistance, USDA's budget plan suggests more reliance on states, local conservation districts and NGOs to support farmers.

"Farmers will continue to receive conservation technical and financial assistance, but with efficiencies that reflect greater reliance on State and local conservation districts. There are also sufficient mandatory funds to provide CTA."

Some NRCS spending on technical assistance would remain. The NRCS budget shows mandatory technical assistance under the 2018 farm bill would go from $296 million down to $220.7 million. Then there is $184 million in CTA funds from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Overall, discretionary conservation spending would fall from $916 million to $112 million.

USDA REORGANIZATION ON HOLD

The cuts depend on how Congress responds to USDA's request and how the department moves ahead with its reorganization plan. The NRCS budget repeatedly notes, "The decrease in FTEs compared to 2025 is based on NRCS's Agency Reorganization and Reduction Plan (ARRP) Phase II projected footprint after reorganization."

The Trump administration's department reorganization plans are currently tied up in an emergency petition before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals late last week upheld a lower court ruling barring USDA and other departments from moving ahead with large-scale cuts in staffing and agency reorganization. A district court judge had ruled the mass job cuts require approval from Congress.

CONSERVATIONISTS WEIGH IN

The value of technical assistance to producers was a big part of a recent Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on conservation programs.

Lynn Tjeerdsma, a former Farm Service Agency branch chief and now a board member of Pheasants Forever and Quails Forever, also testified at the hearing about plans to cut technical assistance.

"If we don't have the technical assistance that is available to us now, I think these conservation programs are going to go by the wayside simply because these farmers and ranchers aren't going to be utilizing them," Tjeerdsma said.

Tjeerdsma said he recognized the federal government was in an atmosphere of budget cuts and streamlining, but he added "There have got to be priorities in technical assistance," Tjeerdsma said. "I can't say enough how important technical assistance is because without it we can't get these practices on the ground."

In an interview, Tjeerdsma said technical assistance is invaluable because staff visit farms and provide one-on-one consultations. Also, he noted some programs such as CSP have a complicated application and specific requirements for farms.

"Just the application itself takes somebody to come out to the farm and sit down, and by that, I mean an actual NRCS employee needs to come out and help with it," Tjeerdsma said.

Without that help, it can be difficult to navigate the requirements and the paperwork.

"A lot of farmers probably wouldn't be enrolling in the program because for one thing they don't know a lot about them and they don't have the capability of determining what programs would be best suited for their farms," Tjeerdsma said.

Tjeerdsma advocated for using federal dollars to leverage private funds such as NGOs as one of the better options for producers, especially when looking at cuts coming down the road.

Gary Blair, a local conservation board member in Mississippi and president of the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD), also stressed the importance of maintaining a strong technical assistance program at USDA.

"Technical assistance is the foundation of our conservation delivery system," Blair said.

While technical assistance is cut, programs such as EQIP, CSP, the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) see funding increases in the USDA budget plan because of the IRA dollars. Combined, those programs see a $889 million boost in funding even though the farm bill spending for each of those programs declines.

"We'll have more money and more potential for those programs; but not having the help to get those programs actually on the ground is going to be difficult. I think that's the reality here," Tjeerdsma said.

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

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